Steven Moffat's replacement selected?
- Thread starter Samurai8472
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Going by how the River Song sections of the arc were being handled over the three years, it seems like the intention was to have the 11th Doctor waste enough regeneration energy so that he couldn't regenerate at the end and would need a new set of regenerations to continue on. But once there was a need for a War Doctor to fill in for the absense of the Ninth Doctor, than a lot of that preperation work was wasted, yet still fit the story. Him being the technical 12th Doctor after the aborted regeneation of the 10th Doctor leaves the 11th with one regeneration left, and he seems to waste some of it at various times in the Sixth and Seventh series (his healing River Song in "Angles Take Manhatten" as well as possibly using some to help fake his own death. But with the added War Doctor, his use of regeneration energy is either was little was left in him, or the use of what extra energy River pushed into him to heal him in "Let's Kill Hitler".
^Keep in mind, after "Let's Kill Hitler," there were a lot of fans who thought that River had restarted the Doctor's regeneration cycle by giving him her energy. So he didn't exactly have a shortage after that.
It's hard to blame Graham Williams for some of the things that happened during his era, Tom Baker started getting out of control even going so far as to change the scripts at times hence the famous "Spack off!" line from Destiny Of The Daleks. Douglas Adams came in as script editor and really wasn't up to the job, plus inflation hit the show rather hard at that time. Barry Letts was also the show's first excutive producer on JNT's first season, although I don't quite know what he addded to the show that season. JNT's era IMO turned out to be far worse than any other producer's era but then the BBC wouldn't let him leave when he wanted to, the same thing happened to Tom Baker as well.
Yeah, and I am not sure Graham Williams is worse than JNT in the latter's collective contribution to the show. For insisting on Sixth's awful constume alone, I'd wager JNT is worse.
According to The Writer's Tale, Planet of the Dead and Waters of Mars were pretty much exclusively written by Gareth Roberts and Phil Ford, with RTD only providing the usual script supervision he does with a typical episode during the regular seasons. It was BBC who insisted RTD be credited as a co-writer for the specials, feeling it would help attract big-name guest stars.
I suspect Moffat's involvement in the episodes he co-wrote in season 8 was only keeping the story arc consistent for Clara and Danny's relationship, and possibly inserting the Missy scenes. Problem with this theory is later episodes in the season still include scenes with Danny or Missy and Moffat isn't credited with co-writing them.
I would love to see Drax again (even if he won't be played by the late Barry Jackson), and even though it won't happen in a million years, I would love to see Narvin (from Big Finish) to pop up.
That being said, I do agree that the Time Lords as a whole are difficult to work with (both in and out of universe), but I contend that they can work with the right kind of writing (see Big Finish's Gallifrey, for instance). I think it's a mistake to dismiss them out of hand simply because of past mistakes.
I certainly agree it's unfair to say Graham Williams' tenure is the worst (I love The Key to Time) but I also think it's unfair to dismiss JNT completely out of hand because of the costume alone. He did a lot of great things during his tenure, but also a lot of rubbish. His tenure was so long, that you have to break it up into eras, too. I think mid-Sixth to mid-Seventh is the lowest point for the show.
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I think the Hartnell's different producers each gave the show a different vibe.
Lambert has a certain style that's harder to peg down. But, often the Doctor goes into the story without the idea that he's the hero who's going to save the day. Her era is a bit dry until she brought in Dennis Spooner as script editor for the 2nd season (and of course for his 1st season script The Time Meddler) in which he introduced a lot of humor and much more natural dialog. So, her era actually has two distinct tones.
Wiles, his short lived era is harder to figure out. He was stuck with some of his predecessor's stories and not too many of his own. But, basically his idea seemed to be, well, more boring and historical oriented. He didn't last long though.
Lloyd came in and really introduced the notion that the Doctor's role IS to save the day. There's a much more good versus evil tone. He also brought in the base undersiege motif. You can really see his hand in a story like The War Machines.
That's my impression of his era's based on recently rewatching all of Hartnell's existing stories. I can't tell the difference between Troughton's producers though.
Mr Awe
Yeah, thats more fair. Thanks for correcting me.
But still, I don't quite think JNT offered much in the way of progress. Character arcs were there, but they were mostly uninteresting or underdeveloped. To add, he favored senssationalism over substance, and thats evident with many a stunt casting he's done in his era.
Plus, his storytelling taste is questionable, at best. He disliked Caves of Androzani intensely, and didn't want Robert Holmes to come back and write it. Also, history has proven that his decision for Ultimate Foe's second episode was totally wrong. Just saying.
The Key to Time season had its moments, thanks largely to Robert Holmes, but Williams's other two seasons have a disproportionate number of stories I hated and thought were dreadfully written and made - "The Invisible Enemy," "Underworld," "The Invasion of Time" (my least favorite portrayal of the TARDIS interior), "The Horns of Nimon." Even the better stories have quite a lot of cheese in them.
Granted, Williams's tenure did give us K-9 and Romana, not to mention "The Sunmakers" and "City of Death." So it wasn't all bad. But I can't think of any other producer with such a high percentage of serials on my "worst" list.
Mr Awe, thanks for your insights on Hartnell's producers.
Lets not forget Shada. Even in incomplete form, its still better than the worst Williams-era stories.
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